Immigration Bill Heads to Senate Floor

At the end of the markup today, Sessions declared that “this legislation fails to live up to every major promise of its sponsors.”

“Ironically, the only promise the sponsors of this legislation have kept is their promise to block any attempts to improve the proposal,” he said.
“As a result, we are left with legislation that is fundamentally unchanged and fatally flawed. It will not become law.”

Sessions also noted “amendments offered by Republicans to put enforcement first were all rejected.”

“This bill is bad for workers, bad for taxpayers and—as immigration officers have pleaded for us to hear—a threat to public safety and the rule of law. It serves the special interests at the expense of the national interest,” he said. “Therefore, I must oppose.”

GOP amendments that were adopted included two from Flake, a Group of Eight member, that would require an additional background check for registered provisional immigrants at the time of status renewal and requiring that any provisional immigrant who fraudulently tries to get federal benefits has his or her status revoked.

“These are commonsense amendments that address specific concerns. They will, respectively, strengthen our security and ensure that federal benefits aren’t extended to those who have fraudulently tried to claim them,” Flake said. “These amendments represent how the full and open process of regular order continues to better this bill.”

Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) said he hopes “our history, our values, and our decency can inspire us finally to take action.” Leahy withdrew his amendment today that would have blended the same-sex marriage debate with immigration by mandating any marriage legal on foreign soil be recognized by U.S. immigration authorities.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) indicated to reporters today that he’s “hopeful that we’ll be able to get a bill that we can pass here in the Senate.”

“With regard to getting started on the bill, it’s my intention if there is a motion to proceed required, to vote for the motion to proceed so we can get on the bill, and see if it is — if we’re able to pass a bill that actually moves the ball in the right direction,” McConnell said.

President Obama, who today met with people who received deferred action status under his DREAM Act-style directive last year, praised the committee’s action and took credit for the Group of Eight’s bill in one fell swoop.

“A strong bipartisan vote is largely consistent with the principles of commonsense reform I have proposed and meets the challenge of fixing our broken immigration system,” he said in a statement. “The process for considering this legislation has been open and inclusive with multiple hearings, and more than a hundred amendments were considered and adopted, in many cases with bipartisan support.”

“None of the Committee members got everything they wanted, and neither did I , but in the end, we all owe it to the American people to get the best possible result over the finish line,” the president said. “I encourage the full Senate to bring this bipartisan bill to the floor at the at the earliest possible opportunity and remain hopeful that the amendment process will lead to further improvements.”

Grassley, ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, said he “voted for amnesty for 3 million people in 1986, and it didn’t solve the problem.”

“At the end of the day, the majority argued against securing the border for another decade. The triggers in the bill that kick off legalization are inefficient, ineffective, and unrealistic. All while amendments that managed to make the bill bigger and costlier were accepted,” he said.

Grassley said the last hope he now has is for floor amendments that would strengthen the bill.

“Now the real work begins to see if we can reform this bill before we send it to the House of Representatives,” the senator said. “We need a bill that truly balances our national security with our economic security.”

The Senate is trying to plow through the farm bill before breaking for the Memorial Day recess. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters today that the immigration bill is the next priority.

Bridget Johnson is a veteran journalist whose news articles and opinion columns have run in dozens of news outlets across the globe. Bridget first came to Washington to be online editor at The Hill, where she wrote The World from The Hill column on foreign policy. Previously she was an opinion writer and editorial board member at the Rocky Mountain News and nation/world news columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News.
She is an NPR contributor and has contributed to USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, Politico and more, and has myriad television and radio credits as a commentator. Bridget is Washington Editor for PJ Media.

The issue is bigger than Mexico: Supposedly this bill includes a huge expansion of the visa program for highly-trained tech specialists to flock here to do those well-paid, education-intensive, middle-class jobs that Americans just won't do.

An old friend of mine, a reservist and Iraq veteran, was fired "for cause" from his job in tech support at a well-regarded public university only three months after a positive, nay glowing, performance review. They did not share with him the details of why. He has three children, one with extensive special needs, and a visually-impaired wife. In his place the university has hired two brand-new arrivals from Taiwan, both half his age, each at half his salary.

The giant immigration reform bill is headed to the Senate floor after five days of amendments in the Judiciary Committee.__________________________________

Under the smoke-screen of Benghazi et al no less. This smacks of the same tactics used to ramrod the (UN)Affordable Care Act through the Senate. Screw We the People over as we're focusing on Christmas - err - Winter Break - or was that Quanza? Damn - can't keep my PC talking points straight any more. At any rate we're all likely to wake up some morning real soon to find we have 20-25 million more of 'US' here. There is a 'here' 'here' isn't there?

As a foreigner, interested in American politics, I would like to know why the US doesn't just take over Mexico. It is even more poorly run than Vermont, and would probably love becoming the 58th state!

Goodbye America. You had a good 200 plus year run, but the forces of entropy, corruption and unbridled lust for power have undone you. The question now is will the forces of ignorance who voted for all of this will be able to comprehend what they have lost as the actions of the Democrat leadership slams the country into Third World status.